Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mowing vehicle including a driving wheel unit, a mower unit, and a raising/lowering mechanism that changes the height of the mower unit with respect to the ground.
Description of the Related Art
A mowing vehicle, when traveling in an area other than an area to be mowed, raises its mower unit to a height above the ground so as to avoid interference with obstacles that are present on the ground as much as possible (traveling at a non-operation height). As a preparatory step for operational traveling (traveling while mowing) in an area to be mowed, the mowing vehicle lowers the mower unit close to the ground and makes minor adjustments as needed (traveling at an operation height). Furthermore, a driver driving the mowing vehicle manually drives or stops a mowing blade attached to the mower unit. As described above, driving a mowing vehicle requires that various operations be performed according to the driving conditions, which burdens the driver.
JP 2014-143984A discloses a ride-on type mowing machine including:
mowing height detection means that detects a mowing height, which is a height of the mower unit with respect to the ground, and a controlling apparatus having a speed regulating function of regulating the traveling speed to be at a predetermined speed or less if the mowing height detected by the mowing height detection means is lower than or equal to a pre-set setting value. This ride-on type mowing machine is intended to reduce the burden on the driver by performing automated control of traveling speed according to the mowing height. However, as described above, the ride-on type mowing machine requires operations such as adjusting the height of the mower unit with respect to the ground, driving or stopping the mowing blade, and the like to be performed according to the driving conditions. For this reason, there is a need for mowing vehicles that further reduce the operational burden on the driver.